Prime-time PR
by Natural Products editor Jim Manson
Earlier this week Radio 4’s Today Programme featured an item about the dangers of buying alternative medicine and therapies over the internet. The item began with the sentence “patient groups are warning about the risks of unproven medical treatments offered on the internet,” giving the strong impression — I thought — that the Today Programme’s coverage had been prompted by the direct experience of patients and patient charities.
But the main contribution in the three-minute report was from the managing director of the lobby group Sense About Science. This made me wonder how the story really got its prime-time slot on the Radio 4’s flagship news programme. A quick check of Sense About Science’s website confirmed a hunch — that same morning it had published a guide for patients about the risks of obtaining untested medical treatments over the internet. The guide was published “with the assistance” of a number of well-known charities (such as the MS Society and Parkinson’s Disease Society) but states clearly that Sense About Science had “final responsibility for its content”. In other words it’s a Sense About Science report.
Given Sense About Science’s previous hostility towards alternative medicine, it’s pro-GM stance and its funding by leading drug firms and food multinationals, you might think the BBC would have a responsibility to make clear to its listeners the nature of the organisation that had effectively ‘placed’ the story. Apparently not.
|
